Dion and his music have long represented a special time and place, reflective of a moment when a song could mean so much. When a singer could sum up what it means to be young, in love and on top of the world. Dion is more than a cherished memory as critic Dave Marsh noted, “Dion is the only artist from the 1950’s who has remained creative and relevant into the 2000s.” In 1958 he had three top-forty hits. In 2008 he was nominated for a Grammy. In 2020, is releasing new studio album Blues with Friends, joined by Joe Bonamassa, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Jeff Beck, Billy Gibbons and many other rock luminaries. In the ’50s he was one of a handful of innovators who defined rock ‘n’ roll and that’s still very much the case.

R & B, blues, doo-wop and that first wave of rock all influenced Dion’s approach to music. But it was Hank Williams, the legendary country artist, who first sparked his ambitions. Williams’s hard-driving lonesome sound attracted the city boy and captured his imagination. By age twelve Dion had collected fifty of Hank’s singles and could sing them by heart. It was his feel for pure country that led to his first professional appearance when he sang Hank’s “Jambalaya” on Paul Whiteman’s show broadcast.

By his teen years Dion was singing on Bronx street corners and in neighborhood bars. He rounded up other local singers and they created their own a cappella arrangements, imitating instruments with their voices.

In 1957 Dion brought the best of these neighborhood singers together — Freddy Milano, Angelo D’Aleo and Carlo Mastrangelo — to form Dion and The Belmonts, taking the group’s name from Belmont Avenue, in the heart of the Bronx.

“I Wonder Why” was Dion’s first hit with The Belmonts and over the next two years the group earned a reputation not only for topping the charts, but for creating some of the most vital and exciting doo wop music on the American scene. With songs such as “I Wonder Why,” “A Teenager In Love” and “Where or When,” Dion & The Belmonts earned their place in music history. They were a national sensation and toured extensively. Dion and The Belmonts were featured artists on the fateful Winter Dance Party, the tour that took the lives of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper. Dion was, in fact, slated to fly on the plane that went down “the day the music died” but fate intervened.

The great music kept coming as Dion ventured out as a solo artist in 1960, racking up a string of #1 hits. Over an incredible four-year run he cut one classic after another from the rollicking “Runaround Sue” to the driving “Lovers Who Wander” to “The Wanderer,” anthemic in concept, it became his de facto theme song. He quickly rose to the top ranks of recording artists and switched from the indie Laurie label to Columbia, the tiffany of record companies where he was the first rocker signed. He continued his streak there with such smashes as “Ruby Baby,” “Donna the Prima Donna,” and “Drip Drop.”